Popular American Musician and rapper, Shawn Corey Carter who goes by the stage name Jay Z has joined hands with other rappers in support of a law stopping rap lyrics from being used as evidence of alleged crime in court against the originators.
According to Rolling Stone, rappers Meek Mill, Big Sean, Fat Joe, and Yo Gotti are among the rappers who have joined forces with Jay Z to call on New York lawmakers to pass Senate Bill S752, brought forward by Democrat senators Brad Hoylman and Jamaal Bailey, and assembly member Catalina Cruz.
Jay-Z’s lawyer, Alex Spiro in a statement said the bill is an issue that’s important to Jay-Z and all the other artists that have come together to try to bring about this change,” adding that the legislation would limit the use of “creative expression” as evidence and push prosecutors to prove that such art is not fictional, with “clear and convincing evidence”.
READ ALSO: BREACH OF ENDORSEMENT: Rapper JAY-Z wins Cologne lawsuit, avoids $67m payment in damages
“This is a long time coming. Mr Carter is from New York, and if he can lend his name and his weight, that’s what he wants to do.”
“We want our words to be recognised as art rather than being weaponised to get convictions in court,” he told Rolling Stone. “I hope the governor and all the lawmakers in New York take our letter into consideration, protect our artistic rights and make the right decision to pass this bill.”
“Presuming a defendant’s guilt based solely on musical genre or creative expression is antithetical to our foundational rights and perpetuates the systemic racism that is embedded into the criminal justice system through discriminatory conflations of hip-hop and rap with criminality,” Senator Bailey said in a statement.
